Breaking News
by Extraordinarily Extraordinary
Summary: "With it out in the open among their own, the public was clearly the next step." - Written because of a prompt on Tumblr. Season 5 but no spoilers, established Caskett.


**This is just a little oneshot inspired by a prompt I got on tumblr from sigma957. As always, nothing you recognize belongs to me. This is sometime season 5 - no spoilers. **

**Please enjoy!**

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_**WRITER AND REAL-LIFE MUSE ARE OFFICIALLY AN ITEM**_

_At the release of the Nikki Heat movie last night, renowned author of the series, Richard Castle, arrived in a stylish limo accompanied by none other than his infamous muse, Detective Kate Beckett of the NYPD. _

_What seemed, at first, like two friends, at the premiere of a movie they are both so much a part of, turned into a very public display of their relationship. The two were seen feeding each other food and holding hands for most of the night._

_During his speech, Castle said, "I owe all of this to Kate. She's made my life more than I ever thought it could be. She makes me stumble on my words, a difficult feat considering my job is words. I don't know where I'd be without her." The detective stood in the audience, with a large smile on her face._

_Sources say that the couple have been together for months. It only recently came to light within their close group of friends a few weeks ago. With it out in the open among their own, the public was clearly the next step._

_..._

Castle folds the newspaper in two and sets it down on the counter in his kitchen. He grabs his coffee and takes a nervous gulp. He rubs his hands over his face and closes his eyes, wishing for a moment that the article is a dream. He opens them to see the headline still there; the article is still real.

Kate is going to kill him. While they had agreed they wouldn't keep it a secret from their friends anymore - because they'd all figured it out anyway - he is sure she did not want to tell the public quite like this.

And what are these sources? None of the people who knew would talk to the press. No, that was just a fabricated lie to make the story sound more convincing, he is sure of it. But, no matter how much is made up, Kate is going to murder him. And, being a detective, get away with it too.

A knock on his door shakes him from his daydream that is slowly being a nightmare ... in the middle of the day.

With one hand on her hip and the other holding the paper, she has somehow never looked so good. His face is warped into a look of fear and anger at the paper. But one look at him, she knows that he had nothing to do with it.

"What the hell happened Castle?" she barges right into the loft, slipping her jacket off onto the chair and stepping out of her shoes. "How did this even happen?

"I don't know," he answers honestly. "Nothing we did at the premiere was different from any other time."

"And we did _not _feed each other food," she says, shaking the paper in his face. He pushes it away and she sighs, "And holding hands? Maybe for like a minute, we held hands!"

"The speech was right, yeah," Castle says. "But it's kind of out of context. I said what I did because I meant it but we went over it with a fine tooth comb. The way I had it in there, it didn't say anything that even sounded like us being together."

"I know, Castle, I was there," she purses her lips in that cute way she does when she's trying to understand something.

"I bet it was one of the actors," Castle says suddenly.

"What?"

"I bet one of the actors was the source," Castle says. "Either that, or there is no source and the reporter just made it up to sell more."

"Maybe, yeah," Beckett agrees. "Castle, what are we going to do now?"

Her mood has gone from anger to worry now. And he senses that it's probably safe to move closer to her now. She doesn't seem ready to kill him now. He inches a little closer.

"Castle, this is the part where you're supposed to lean in and hug me," she rolls her eyes at him.

He thought so. He moves even closer to her and wraps his arms around her, pulling her into him with as much force as he dares. She wraps her arms around him too and turns her face up to him, "What are we going to do? I don't want to be in the public eye. It's bad enough being your muse!"

"Being my muse isn't terrible, though, is it?" he asks, a little worried because he'd always thought she liked it.

"No. Being your muse isn't terrible," she shakes her head. "But the public commenting on what I do because of it? That's not so great. And it'll be ten times worse if the papers are publishing lies like this."

"So what do you want to do?"

"Take it all back," she shrugs. His eyes widen and she realizes the meaning her words could have. "No, no. Not that. Not like that, no. I meant the article, Castle. Take the article back. But only the article. I swear, nothing else. I wouldn't take that back for all the money in the world."

He breathes again and relaxes against her. He pulls her away from him and says, "We'll tell the public what they want to know - need to know only - and make sure no more lies are out there. I'll release a statement. I'll have Paula arrange it."

"Yeah? Think that will work?" she asks.

"It works with Alexis," he shrugs. "I have always told the public to keep Alexis out of it, I can try the same for you."

"You're the best, you know that," she smiles at him.

"I know," he smirks.

"Not to boost your ego," she rolls her eyes again. "You know, I had a reason to come over here before I saw the paper on the streets."

"Yeah, what was that?"

"I missed you," she leans up and kisses him. She throws the paper on the chair beside them and the thought of the article leaves both their minds.

...

_**Author Confirms Rumour Mill**_

_Best-selling author, Richard Castle, released a statement yesterday afternoon in regards to the article portraying him as taken by his muse. _

_"Yes. It is true. I am in a relationship with Detective Kate Beckett. To be honest, I've been in love with her for four years. Only recently, she and I have become official. We kept it a secret from everyone at first, as rules at her work prevented us from seeing each other. But she works with detectives. Needless to say, they found out rather quickly. The article a few days ago was not at all how we wanted it announced the public. And I have to say that it had very little truth to it."_

_Castle also asked the media and fans to keep a distance from the detective, as being in the public eye is not good for her job. He said that he "loved the way the public acted with his daughter, Alexis, and would wish they do the same for Kate."_

_There you have it. Richard Castle and Kate Beckett _are _an item. It's official. But, in the wishes of the author, do not overcrowd the detective. We wouldn't want our new favourite couple facing trouble because of something the public did, now would we?_

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**Thoughts? Love it? Hate it? Please review!**


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